Telecom Ramblings

Level 3 Communications (NYSE:LVLT, news, filings) wasted little time picking a successor to James Crowe, who announced his intention to leave the company by the end of 2013 just last month.  Today the company named Jeff Storey as both CEO and President effective immediately, elevating him from his previous role as COO and President.  He now takes over responsibility for proving the company’s growth model going forward. [Read more →]

Where there were two deep, independent, northeastern fiber footprints, there is now just the one. Lightower Fiber Networks and Sidera Networks announced the completion of their merger this morning, creating a northeastern, pure-play, fiber juggernaut that just might be hungry for further consolidation. [Read more →]

After a few years of slow uptake, 100G is starting to truly hit its stride across all types of networks around the world.  Yesterday Ciena (NASDAQ:CIEN, news, filings) won two contracts for its coherent technology, one on the West Coast and the Rockies and the other in the MidWest. [Read more →]

As the shareholder vote at MetroPCS loomed this Friday, Deutsche Telekom faced the possibility that it’s proposed merger with T-Mobile USA might not carry the day. Speculation had been rising for weeks that they would blink, and in fact that’s exactly what they have now done – to an extent. [Read more →]

Time for a quick roundup of US data services news, with items from XO, Cologix, Global Capacity, Cbeyond, and UNSi: [Read more →]

The internet exchange DE-CIX is getting a big new Ethernet platform. Traffic growth at Europe’s internet exchanges has not tapered off, and DE-CIX is looking at a whole lot of data traffic to get ready for over the next few years. To meet those needs, they’re putting in place a next generation Ethernet interconnection platform called Apollon. [Read more →]

Yesterday, I ended my look at Google Fiber’s plans for Austin with the question of how the incumbents might respond to this evolution beyond the demo. Apparently, AT&T (NYSE:T, news, filings) was way ahead of me, because they stepped up and unveiled their own Gigabit fiber buildout plan for Austin. This sets up quite an interesting dynamic, not so different from that popular poker variant, Texas Hold’em. [Read more →]

Hurricane Electric has decided to jump on the 100G bandwagon, and they’re going to get the wavelengths for it from Zayo.  The global IP backbone and IPv6 trend-setter has purchased 100G waves along Zayo’s recently upgraded routes, which include both New York to Washington DC and Chicago to Memphis, and probably [Read more →]

Lots of news this week by vendors from around the world, here’s a look at items from ADVA, Alcatel-Lucent, Calix, and Ericsson: [Read more →]

It’s still unofficial, but with this many leaks it’s quite clear we’re way beyond the rumor stage. Google is doing what I never figured they’d do: taking their formula from demonstration to an actual multi-market footprint. The next city to get the Kansas City Gigabit Express: Austin, Texas. [Read more →]

Spring must be the season for these things, as the past few weeks have seen more than a couple cross the wires.  Today Windstream announced the receipt of a new federal contract from the GSA.  The local services acquisition deal puts their voice and data solutions before government agencies across GSA Region 6, the Heartland region of [Read more →]

For the past several weeks, a drama has played out in the Chinese press surrounding the messaging app WeChat. You see, users are up in arms over the possibility that the government won’t let the company that runs the service keep not charging for it. [Read more →]

An article in the Times of India this morning presented details about an impending deal that would put Reliance Globalcom into the hands of Bahrain’s Batelco. Rumors of such a transaction have been bubbling up since the middle of March, and although Reliance has been trying to turn the division into cash for several years now with no success, this one is starting to look like the real deal. [Read more →]

We have two more job listings this week, one from AireSpring and another from Unite Private Networks. [Read more →]

Time for a Friday look at some of the other news this week, with items from Digital Realty, Interoute, OTEGlobe, and Virtela: [Read more →]

With the MetroPCS shareholder showdown just eight days away, it appears that Deutsche Telekom may be about to blink. It’s been some six months since they made the bid, which would simultaneously boost T-Mobile USA’s spectrum position and distance the German incumbent from its US progeny. [Read more →]

These days we rarely see nine figure fiber IRUs hit the wires, but that’s what happened earlier this week in India. Reliance Industries wants to get into 4G, and to get there they’re tapping Reliance Communications for a whole pile of dark fiber across the country. [Read more →]

It had been a few months since Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO, news, filings) acquired anything, so to correct the oversight they kicked off the second quarter by announcing their intention to buy Ubiquisys. The deal will bring key mobile technology aimed at small cell networks into Cisco’s portfolio.  [Read more →]

Level 3 Communications (NYSE:LVLT, news, filings) picked up some federal business today. They’ve been selected by the GSA as a provider for the GRITS II contract. The indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity deal has an estimated potential value of up to $285M with a four year term plus six optional years. [Read more →]

After rumors yesterday that a Vodafone deal was in the works, Verizon quickly moved to put out the flames. If that sounds familiar it’s because it is. Whether it’s just for the Verizon Wireless stake, the whole shebang, or a three-way, such rumors have been difficult to stop lately. [Read more →]

Time for some quick catch-up in the colo space, with items from Cologix, 6DG, CyrusOne, Digital Realty, and Equinix: [Read more →]

The Vodafone rumor du jour would certainly be a dramatic event, should it come true. FT’s Alphaville blog paraphrases ‘usually reliable people’ as saying that Verizon and AT&T are preparing a joint bid for Vodafone worth something in the neighborhood of $245B.  Of course, ‘usually reliable people’ is a fairly general category which could be interpreted to include my dry cleaner and we are still dangerously close to April Fools day still, but then it the Financial Times here and such a deal isn’t entirely implausible. [Read more →]

The Fiber M&A front has been relatively quiet so far in 2013, but this morning saw a bit of consolidation up in the northeast. Tech Valley Communications has agreed to acquire substantially all of the assets of Vermont-based TelJet Longhaul, LLC. Those assets include both a metro and regional fiber network and a 20,000 square foot data center. [Read more →]